Currently, approximately 350 million megawatt-hours of energy are consumed globally each day (which is equivalent to the energy in approximately 205 million barrels of oil). With continued industrial expansion and population growth throughout the developed and developing world, global consumption is expected to increase approximately sixty percent over the next twenty-five years, pushing global energy consumption to over 500 million megawatt-hours per day. Approximately seventy-five percent of energy currently consumed comes from non-renewable sources, such as oil, coal, natural gas, and other such fossil fuels. The current level of fossil fuel usage accounts for the release of approximately six million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each day. With a finite supply of fossil fuels available and growing concerns over the impact of carbon dioxide, continued reliance on fossil fuels as a primary source of energy is not indefinitely sustainable.
One approach to sustaining the current global energy consumption rate and accounting for future increases in consumption is to research and develop novel and improved methods for generating energy from renewable sources. Sources of renewable energy include water-powered energy, wind-powered energy, solar energy, and geothermal energy. Of the current practical renewable energy sources, water-powered energy, and specifically wave-powered energy, may hold the most promise for developing a substantial renewable energy source to meet growing global energy needs.
It has been long understood that ocean waves contain considerable amounts of energy. Given the high level of energy concentration present in waves and the vast areas available for harvesting such energy, wave-powered energy technology represents a significant renewable energy source. Numerous systems have been developed in an attempt to efficiently capture the energy of waves; however, no prior conceived systems or methods have achieved the efficiency or cost-effectiveness required to make wave-powered energy a viable alternative energy source.
Wave energy recovery systems must successfully operate in very hostile marine or freshwater environments. Such environments are prone to violent storms and the deleterious impact of salt water, plant life, and animal life. Further, due to the offshore location of such systems, a successful system must include an efficient means for delivering the energy output to shore. These and other technical challenges have been addressed and overcome by this invention as herein described.